The successful launch of India's ambitious moon mission Chandrayaan-3 on Friday was one more achievement for the country under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel.
Chandrayaan-3 took off from the spaceport in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh in the afternoon, with a soft landing on the moon expected at 5:47om on August 23.
A statement from the Gujarat CMO said Patel congratulated all those associated with the mission and expressed happiness for the successful launch of Chandrayaan-3.
Wishing the successful completion of every next phase in the mission, Patel said, "Under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi, India is achieving world-class achievements at regular intervals and today's launch of Chandrayaan-3 has become another milestone."
According to Ritesh Kumar Sharma, a scientist-engineer at the ISRO's Space Application Centre (SAC) here and deputy project director of Chandrayaan-3 mission, data collected through this mission will serve as "milestones" for subsequent missions to the moon.
"The lander of Chandrayaan-2 lost contact due to the hard landing on moon's surface instead of the planned soft landing. However, that experience helped us in developing Chandrayaan-3. The data collected through this mission will serve as milestones for subsequent missions. The data will also help us in deciding whether we can inhabit the moon," said Sharma.
Dr Vrajesh Parikh, general manager for science popularisation at the state government-run Science City here, said this mission will test India's claims of being an "atmanirbhar" or self-reliant nation.
"This mission is a test of India's claim of being atmanirbhar. This mission's success will serve as a proof to that claim. Though Chandrayaan-2 faced issues in landing, our scientists had used that experience and built more robust systems and modules. I am confident it will achieve 100 per cent success and this mission will help the entire world," said Parikh.
